Sass Somekh chairs the PHEV project of Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Clean & Green initiative. (The founder of Novellus organized Silicon Valley Business Leaders for Alternative Energy.) After briefing the June 2007 SVLG Board of Directors, he and Tom McCalmont, chairman of SVLG's Solar Tech Initiaive and CEO of Campbell-based REgrid Power, talked about the two initiatives. Full size photo

At the United Auto Workers Union office in Fremont near the NUMMI plant (where Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Corolla cars and Toyota Tacoma trucks are built), we met in May 2007 with UAW Local 2244 Trustee and Bargaining Committee Member Javier Contreras, Apollo Alliance Western Regional Field Director Carla Din, Local 2244 President George Nano and Mary Ann Massenburg, retired UAW International Representative. Full size photo

Dr. Terry Galloway, President, Intellergy Corp and Dan Miller, Managing Director of the Roda Group, both Board Members of the Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland Hills, with Felix before he spoke in May, 2007. Full size photo

Rogelio Sullivan, Group Leader for the Advanced Materials and Hybrid Electric Systems Programs at the Department of Energy, at the Cascadia Conference in Redmond, WA in May 2007. Full size photo

Sarah Connolly from Rainforest Action Network/the Freedom from Oil Campaign and Plug-In Bay Area, and Danielle Fugere, Director of Climate Change at Bluewater Network/Friends of the Earth, joined Palo Alto Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto at City Hall Plaza for the March 2007 kick-off of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's program to endorse soft fleet orders for PHEVs. Full size photo

In Sausalito in March 2007, we demoed the car to Jeff Goodell, journalist and author of the recently-published "Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future;" futurist Stewart Brand, involved in creating The Whole Earth Catalog, The Well, The Global Business Network and much more (read about him at Wikipedia); and Alexander Rose, robotics and bio-diesel enthusiast and Executive Director of the Long Now Foundation (read about the 10,000 Year Clock, The Rosetta Project and Long Bets). Full size photo

Engineering Professor Emeritus Gil Masters has inspired several generations of Stanford University students and many others to make environmental issues their life work. Energy Crossroads Conference, March 2007. Full size photo

Denis Hayes, "practical visionary" President/CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, organizer of the first Earth Day in 1970 (now in 180 countries), first director of the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory, former Stanford University Adjunct Engineering Professor and Silicon Valley lawyer, drove a PHEV for the first time in February 2007, from near San Francisco Airport to a Commonwealth Club event. He is with his wife, Gail Boyer, attorney and author of "Solar access law: Protecting access to sunlight for solar energy systems." Full size photo

Steve Marshall, senior fellow of the Cascadia Center, retiring president of the Seattle Municipal League, formerly a senior executive in the electric utility industry, frequent public advocate for PHEVs in the Pacific Northwest and in Washington DC (see his article, Recharging the Nation's Energy Policy). Mountain View, February 2007. Full size photo

Actor Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings/Pirates of the Caribbean), drove in our car to the GlobalGreen pre-Oscars party, February 2007 (Photo: Wireimage)

Global Green USA President Matt Petersen with PHEV at the 2007 pre-Oscars party. PHOTO: REUTERS/Gus Ruelas

Futurist and business strategist Peter Schwartz, co-founder of the Global Business Network, former head of scenario planning for Royal Dutch Shell, and co-author of the much-discussed report for the Department of Defense, "An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for US National Security," appreciates the broad significance of PHEVs. This demo was in Berkeley in February 2007. Full size photo

Inventor Dean Kamen, in his iBOT Mobility System, got a ride in our car in Mountain View in February 2007. Kamen has created breakthrough devices including the first drug-infusion pump and home dialysis unit, the Segway Human Transporter and recently, extraordinary inventions to provide clean water and electricity to hundreds of millions of people in the third world. DEKA Research is also working on Sterling engine technologies that could match well with PHEVs. Full size photo

Maria Shriver at pre-Inaugural "Leading the Green Dream" event with CalCars Founder Felix Kramer in Sacramento, January 2007. Click left half or right half for full size of that image.

California Air Resources Board Chairman Robert Sawyer, former Secretary of State George Shultz, and former Secretary of the Environment Terry Tamminen at pre-Inaugural "Leading the Green Dream" event in Sacramento, January 2007. Full size photo

CalCars' Ron and Felix with Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Palm, Handspring and Numenta, currently CTO at Palm, after a "brown-bag lunch" CalCars presentation at Palm's headquarters, December 2006. Full size photo.

UC Davis Prof. Andy Frank and former CIA Director James Woolsey both spoke at the Alternative Car and Transportation Expo in December 2006 in Santa Monica. Woolsey first said, "for a plug-in hybrid, we need a bigger battery and, yes, there is an infrastructure investment: an extension cord. Each family would need an extension cord," at the launch event for Plug-In Partners. Full size photo.

CalCars Founder Felix Kramer had a few minutes to talk with Al Gore after his speech, before he returned to the airport in our car. Gore's top questions were about cost and availability. Full size photo. In his September "What we can do about it" speech at NYU, Gore urged "retooling our failing auto giants — GM and Ford — to require and assist them in switching to the manufacture of flex-fuel, plug-in, hybrid vehicles."

Daryl Hannah first encountered CalCars at the MakerFaire, where she produced a Treehugger segment. In mid-October 2006, she was picking up some images for her video website, DHLoveLife.Com, before heading down from San Francisco to Palo Alto in our car. Click left half or right half for full size of that image. See her finished video, featuring CalCars in the second half.

Robert "Bud" McFarlane, member of Set America Free, former national security adviser to President Reagan, and principal at Energy & Communications Solutions, gives his "thumbs up" before taking our PHEV for a spin and after speaking at the October CEO Summit on Alternative Energy in San Jose.

This Silicon Valley delegation's August 2006 visit to Sacramento was noted as a balance-tipper toward the successful signing of AB32. See more at See more at CalCars and Global Warming and Felix Kramer's blog.
First row: Ellen Pao, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Dave Pearce, Miasole; Jack Newman, Amyris; Bob Epstein, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2); Nathalie Hoffman, CA Renewable Energies; Diane Doucette, CA Global Warming Campaign. Second row: Larry Gross, Altra; John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Amy Christiansen, Google.org; Felix Kramer, CalCars. Full-size photo

SpaceShipOne's Burt Rutan, alongside the CalCars plug-in charging from an Energy Innovations solar carport, at Pebble Beach in August 2006. Full-size photo

Felix with CalTech professor Nate Lewis, leading global warming researcher, June 2006 in Pasadena. Full-size photo

Southern California Edison's Dean Taylor, longtime PHEV advocate, as Felix takes delivery in Monrovia of his EnergyCS-converted Prius in April 2006. Full-size photo

Felix Kramer and Ron Gremban in San Francisco February 2006 with Lester R. Brown (center), founder, Worldwatch, Earth Policy Institute. Full-size photo